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COHEN 


THE  EVOLUTION 
OF  JEWISH 
DISABILITY 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


^'^ 


t  Evolution  of 
sh    Disability 


REV,  HENRY  COHEN, 
GALVESTON,  TEXAS. 


■§^   Cf^     Jo 


The  Evolution  of 
Jewish  Disability 


REV.  HENRY  COHEN, 

GALVESTON,  TEXAS. 


An  Essay  read  before  the 
Convention  of  District  No. 
7,  I.  O.  B.  B.,  New  Or- 
leans, La.,  May  24th,  1896 


NEW    YORK: 

PRESS    OF    PHILIP    COWEN,   2 1 3-2 1 5    E.    44TH    ST. 

1806. 


DS 

cc.T> 

THE  EVOLUTION   OF  JEWISH   DISABIUTY 


By  Rev.  Henry  Cohen,  Galveston,  Texas 


TN  as  concise  a  manner  as  possible,  I  shall  endeavor  to 
-^  bring  before  you  an  outline  of  the  evolution  of  Jewish 
disability — a  theme  that  must  at  one  time  or  another  have 
held  a  place  in  our  minds,  inasmuch  as  at  this  late  day  and 
in  this  free  country  we  have  beeu  threatened  with  an  invasion 
of  our  right  to  liberty  of  conscience,  presignifying  legalized 
disabilities. 

It  is,  moreover,  eminently  proper  that  this  subject 
should  be  discussed  before  a  convention  of  the  members  of 
the  Order  B'ne  B'rith,  since  our  corporation  of  thirty  thou- 
sand Israelites  entitles  us  to  a  representation  and  a  hearing 
whenever  measures  militating  against  our  race  and  religion 
are  suggested. 

Besides  the  upholding  of  charitable  institutions  and  the 
impetus  that  our  Order  gives  to  literary  culture,  it  should  be 
our  place,  either  separately  or  in  conjunction  with  a  special 
body  purposely  appointed,  to  agitate  against  any  movement 
aimed  at  our  freedom  of  conscience.  In  this  agitation,  if 
such  shall  ever  arise,  we  shall  have  the  judgment  of  all  think- 
ing people  upon  our  side.  Let  me  hasten  to  assure  you  that 
I  have  not  set  up  a  man  of  straw  in  order  to  demolish  it  by 
a  battery  of  argument.  Early  in  the  month  of  March  of  this 
year  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
at  Washington  was  petitioned  by  the  delegates  of  some  zealous 
Christian  sects  to  insert  the  name  of  Christ  in  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  virtually  making  this  a  Christian 
country  de  jure  and  defacio,  with  all  that  such  ecclesiastical 
legislation  means.  Public  schools,  the  marriage  rite  and 
even  public  worship  for  all  non-Christians  would,  in  some 
shape  or  form,  be  under  discrimination,  and  Church  and 
State  would  be  practically  allied.  If  among  Christians  this 
would  breed  strife — for  Protestants  and  Catholics  are  not  yet 
agreed — what  would  result  for  Israelites?  Not  that  the 
danger  of  an  affirmative  reply  to  the  petition  was  at  any 


6  E VOL  UTION  OF  JE WISH  DISABILITY 

time  imminent,  for  the  American  people  are  just,  but  it  is 
well  that  we  should  understand  the  enormit)'  of  such  a  pro- 
cedure carried  to  success,  as  far  as  we  Jews  are  concerned. 

The  alliance  of  the  Church  and  the  State,  or,  in  other 
words,  a  prescribed  state  religion,  has  always  caused  Israel 
to  be  accounted  as  a  "stranoer"  whose  existence  was  a 
menace  to  the  rest  of  the  population,  and  this  fact  has  been 
attested  by  no  less  a  Christian  authority  than  Iveroy-Beaulieu 
("Israel  among  the  Nations").  By  reason  of  our  non- 
acceptance  of  the  state  religion,  we  are  considered  by  the 
masses  as  having  nothing  in  common  with  the  people  with 
whom  we  live,  and  this  is  and  has  been  the  prime  cause  of 
our  continued  persecutions.  In  Biblical  no  less  than  in  post- 
Biblical  times,  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt,  the  Jews  in  Persia, 
the  Israelites  in  mediaeval  and  modern  Europe,  suffered 
opposition  because  legislation,  based  upon  a  constitutional 
religion,  adjudged  them  aliens.  Let  us  trace  the  history  of 
our  disabilities  in  every  country  in  which  we  have  become 
numerous  from  their  inception,  through  their  amelioration^ 
to  their  entire  removal  (where  they  have  been  entirely 
removed),  and  let  us  see  whether  the  idea  postulated  a 
moment  ago  will  not  be  borne  out — namely,  whether  our 
right  to  complete  citizenship  has  not  been  based  upon  the 
supposition  that,  inasmuch  as  we,  as  Jews,  totally  differ  with 
the  state  religion,  we  are  aliens,  and,  as  such,  are  liable  to 
persecution.  And  it  will  be  interesting  to  inquire  whether 
the  Israelite  has  not,  in  many  instances,  become  degraded 
by  the  legal  treatment  he  has  received  in  consequence  of  this 
discrimination,  and  whether  the  reverse  is  not  also  true — 
that  he  has  become  elevated  by  tolerant  legislation. 

Beginning  as  far  back  as  a  thousand  years  ago,  we  find 
that  while  the  Jews  in  the  East,  living  under  the  Kaliphate 
of  Omar  and  Haroun-al-Raschid,  progressed  favorably  by 
reason  of  benign  legislation,  they  degenerated,  in  a  measure, 
under  Mutavakel,  who  looked  upon  them  as  strangers  and 
interlopers.  Their  clothing  was  prescribed,  as  well  as  their 
beasts  of  burden,  for  the  "giaour"  could  neither  dress  in  the 
same  manner  nor  ride  upon  the  same  animal  as  the  "  faith- 


EVOLUTION  OF  JFAVJSH  DISABILITY  7 

ful."  Subsequently  the  inherent  ability  of  the  Jews  was 
recognized  and  appreciated,  and  the  Mohammedan  rulers 
granted  Israelites  in  their  dominion  political  and  social 
equality,  to  the  end  that  the  mental  capacity  ot  the  race 
might  enlarge.  For  three  hundred  years  the  wisdom  of  this 
policy  was  proven.  The  Jews  had,  ere  that,  spread  westward, 
and  the  mild  rule  of  the  Eastern  Kaliphs  was  copied  by 
France  and  Spain,  and  its  consequent  elevation  of  Israel 
resulted.  In  the  former  country,  Jewish  teachers  were  pre- 
ferably employed,  Jewish  physicians  were  in  demaud,  Jewish 
merchants  and  traders  were  honored,  and  Jewish  navigators 
were  common.  They  held  land,  served  as  government 
officials  and  were  elected  prefects.  Jewish  schools  flourished 
and  produced  men  whose  learning  was  universally  acknowl- 
edged. In  short,  from  the  king  to  the  peasant  Israel  was 
respected,  and  in  some  instances  beloved,  to  the  verge  of 
causing  the  dire  enmity  of  Christian  churchmen.  The 
liberty  that  was  granted  them  they  appreciated,  and  by  their 
patriotism  and  diligence  they  repaid  tenfold  the  confidence 
reposed  in  them.  If  we  have  said  so  much  of  France,  what 
shall  we  say  of  Spain,  with  its  Golden  Age  of  Judaism? 

In  that  country,  from  the  eighth  to  the  twelfth  century 
Israel's  lot  was  happy.  As  in  the  father-land,  each  man 
could  sit  under  his  vine  and  his  fig-tree,  and  there  were  none 
to  make  him  afraid.  Such  consideration  was  paid  to  the 
religious  scruples  of  the  Israelites  that  during  the  war 
between  Mohammedan  and  Catholic  Spain  battles  were  post- 
poned by  opposing  generals  because  of  the  intervention  of 
the  Jewish  Sabbath.  Such  treatment  produced  Jewish  viziers 
and  ministers.  Such  legislation  gave  birth  to  Jewish  literary 
giants,  honored  by  all,  and  turned  the  thoughts  of  Israel  into 
a  highly  intellectual  channel  that  directly  and  indirectly 
benefited  the  whole  of  Southern  Europe.  Philosophy  and 
medicine,  astronomy  and  philology,  found  their  home  among 
the  Jewish  people  on  the  Peninsula,  and  so  the  powers  that 
were,  were  repaid  in  kind  for  their  unbounded  justice.  Alas! 
this  was  not  to  last.  The  dynasty  of  the  Almohades  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  twelfth  century  knew  no  tolerance  but  for 


8  E  VOL  UTION  OF  JE  WISH  DISABILITY 

Mohammedans,  and  the  Jews  of  Spain,  the  alien  race — alien 
because  they  did  not  follow  the  Prophet — were  oflfered  con- 
version or  exile.  Thousands  of  families  left  the  country  for 
other  parts,  and  confusion  and  its  consequent  degeneration 
reigned  where  peace  and  enlightenment  had  held  sway.  In 
Catholic  Spain,  Jews  were  still  respected,  and,  in  notable 
instances,  honored ;  but  as  Catholic  Spain  grew  and  Moham- 
medan Spain  diminished,  the  proverbial  cloud,  at  first  no 
bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  appeared  and  gradually  spread 
over  the  whole  sky  until  it  burst  forth  in  the  storm  of  the 
Inquisition,  with  its  Marannos,  its  tortures  and  its  exiles, 
destroying  in  its  impetuosity  the  usefulness  of  that  country. 
Nevermore,  O  Spain,  wilt  thou  revive!  Thou  wert  a  cruel 
mother  to  thy  trusting  children !  Thou  wert  unmindful  of 
the  light  that  Israel  shed  when  thou  wert  benign,  and  so 
thou  didst  darken  his  soul  and  degrade  his  image  by  thine 
own  black  shadow ! 

We  come  now  to  France  and  the  neighboring  states. 
For  a  century  and  moie  in  the  early  Middle  Ages,  France 
modeled  her  laws  of  toleration  after  those  of  Spain,  and  the 
Jews  were  happy  and  enlightened  in  consequence.  Gradu- 
ally, and  by  stealth,  one  enactment  after  another  was  intro- 
duced against  the  life  and  person  of  the  Israelites.  They 
were  aliens,  and  could  neither  hold  land,  nor  sell  land,  nor 
buy  land.  Their  inclination  for  medicine  was  not  encouraged, 
and,  finally,  their  practice  as  physicians  was  forbidden.  The 
professions  were  closed  to  them,  and  as  soldiers,  promotion 
was  denied  them.  Commerce  was  the  only  port  through 
which  they  might  enter  to  make  a  living,  and  while  it  was 
not  to  their  taste,  as  scholarship  had  been,  it  was,  at  all 
events,  endurable.  New  restrictions  and  new  regulations, 
prompted  by  envy  and  malice,  soon  brought  trafiicking  down 
to  a  low  standard,  and  eventually  took  even  that  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  Jews  and  drove  them  through  an  avenue  that 
was  distasteful  and  strange  to  them— money-lending.  Thus 
we  see  that  adverse  legislation,  based  upon  the  Church-and- 
State  theory  of  Israel  being  the  "stranger"  people,  wrought 
unutterable  harm  for  our  race,  the  result  of  which  has  not 


EVOL  UTJON  OF  JE  WISH  DISABILITY  9 

altogether  disappeared.  But  we  have  not  yet  done.  France 
and  Central  Europe  drove  the  Jews  to  money-lending  and 
then  persecuted  them  for  usury,  gave  them  no  chance  to  earn 
a  livelihood  by  any  other  means,  and  oppressed  them  for 
earning  it  by  this  means.  Under  Louis  IX.  (1226-1270), 
whole  libraries  of  Jewish  books  were  burned,  and  the  "  rou- 
elle,"  a  degrading  badge,  was  ordered  to  be  worn  by  Jews  of 
both  sexes,  thus  discriminating  against  them  mentally  and 
physically.  They  were  expelled,  purchased  back,  expelled 
and  re-purchased,  and  finally,  after  being  accused  of  poison- 
ing wells  and  causing  the  plague,  were  in  1394,  under  Charles 
VI.,  commanded  to  leave  the  country  altogether — an  edict 
of  expulsion  which  remained  in  force  till  the  year  1784 
(nearly  four  centuries).  While  it  is  true  that  during  these 
four  hundred  years,  and  more  especially  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  Jews  gradually  settled  in  French  dominions,  they 
were  allowed  there  on  sufferance  only,  and  (as  in  the  instance 
of  Louis  XIII.)  Christians  were  forbidden  to  have  intercourse 
with  them.  Despised  and  reviled,  born  of  the  soil  and  yet 
accounted  foreigners,  they  were  thus  the  victims  of  a  legal 
ban. 

In  Germany,  whither  the  Jews  had  gone  to  escape  West- 
ern or  Southern  persecutions,  their  position  was  precarious. 
Plundered  and  destroyed  by  the  Crusaders,  expelled  and 
recalled  and  expelled  again,  their  lives  were  made  miserable. 
Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  they  were  serfs,  and  were  inor- 
dinately taxed  for  a  protection  which  they  never  received. 
With  the  possible  exception  of  Frederick  Barbarossa,  every 
German  emperor  looked  upon  the  Jew  as  so  much  goods  and 
chattels,  and  treated  him  as  such.  They  were  occasionally 
pawned  en  masse^  or  presented  to  a  vassal  prince  as  a  gift. 
Physically  weak  in  the  aggregate  and  too  down-hearted  to 
resist,  they  held  their  peace. 

Their  lot  was  so  hard  that  thousands  emigrated  to 
Poland  and  Turkey  where  the  regal  sway  was  comparatively 
mild.  Everywhere,  however,  the  Emperors  attempted  to 
destroy  the  germs  of  Jewish  learning,  so  thoroughly  culti- 
vated in  bygone  years,  and  were  in  many  instances  success- 


1  o  E  VOL  UTION  OF  JE  WISH  DISABIL  IT  Y 

fill.  In  England,  whither  Jews  had  emigrated  from  the 
continent,  they  lived  till  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  in 
comparative  security.  They  were  ,"  protected  "  by  extra 
taxation,  of  course,  and  must  have  attained  to  a  degree  ot 
learning,  if  we  may  judge  by  certain  scholastic  "Halls" 
named  after  Jewish  leaders;  once  again  showing  that,  under 
lenient  legislation,  they  rise  to  the  surface.  In  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries,  during  the  Crusades,  the  Christians 
found  an  excuse  for  robbing  and  murdering  the  Jews — 
co-religionists  of  the  man,  for  the  possessiou  of  whose  sepul- 
chre Christendom  was  then  fighting.  They  were  accused 
of  crucifying  William  of  Norwich  and  Hugh  of  Lincoln — 
trumped  up  charges,  as  all  blood  accusations  are,  and  they 
suffered  accordingly.  Massacred  at  York  and  elsewhere  at 
the  accession  of  Richard  I.,  plundered,  tortured  and  mur- 
dered by  John,  their  lives  were  in  jeopardy  by  day  and  by 
night.  Under  Edward  I.,  the  statute  book  decreed  that  Jews 
should  become  agriculturists  under  pain  of  further  taxation, 
but  as  the  earlier  edict  that  Jews  should  not  hold  real  estate 
had  never  been  repealed,  this  was  impossible;  and  the  Jews 
paid  for  that  impossibility.  After  repeated  attempts  at  con- 
version which  resulted  unsuccessfully,  they  were  expelled 
^s  aliens  in  1290, — the  halt  and  the  blind,  the  old  and  the 
young — men,  women  and  children — victims  of  that  religious 
fanaticism,  rife  in  all  church-ridden  countries. 

The  Jews  expelled  from  Spain  sought  a  home  in  Italy, 
but  were  very  poorly  welcomed.  Several  cities  closed  their 
doors  ngainst  them  altogether,  while  others  admitted  them 
but  to  shut  them  up  in  ghettos.  Numbers  of  Israelites 
crossed  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  and  settled  in  Africa,  to  be 
eventually  sold  as  slaves;  and  others  met  a  barbarous  death 
at  the  hands  of  the  natives.  Many  went  westward  to  Portu- 
gal, which  afforded  an  asylum  for  a  few  years,  thence  were 
dispersed  over  Italy,  Africa,  and  the  East,  some  few  finding 
a  domicile  in  Holland. 

In  Poland,  where  many  refugees  found  a  foothold,  they 
were  at  first,  in  a  manner,  "  protected."  They  were  allowed 
to  trade,  but  were  looked  upon  as  aliens  and  hence  discrimi- 


E  VOL  UTION  OF  JE  WISH  DISABILIT  Y  1 1 

nated  against.  Already  stunted  in  body  and  mind,  they  grew 
worse  under  Polish  regime,  and  those  who  did  not  emigrate 
had  barely  the  semblance  of  civilized  men. 

After  the  recital  of  all  these  grim  persecutions  and 
expulsions,  do  not  the  plaintive  words  of  Byron  seem  singu- 
larly true  ? 

"  Tribes  of  the  wandering  foot  and  weary  breast, 

How  shall  ye  flee  away  and  be  at  rest  ? 

The  wild-dove  hath  her  nest,  the  fox  his  cave. 

Mankind,  their  country — Israel  but  the  grave  !  " 

It  were,  indeed,  of  little  use  to  portray  this  terrible  his- 
tory of  Israel's  martyrdom,  were  it  not  that  I  wish  to  show 
the  effect  that  continual  persecution  has  upon  a  people,  and 
how  such  persecution  can  almost  dehumanize  a  race.  During 
the  years  between  the  golden  age  of  I'^rael,  when  our  co- 
religionists stood  abreast  of  progress  and  science,  ethics  and 
philosophy,  and  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  character 
of  the  race  had  deteriorated  immeasurably.  Forbidden  to 
practise  Judaism  openly,  prohibited  from  entering  the  pro- 
fessions, shunned  by  all  who  were  not  of  the  Faith,  they  were 
forced  into  mean  trades  and  callings,  and  were  made  shrewd 
and  wary,  incredulous  and  suspicious.  If  money  was  the 
only  thing  to  gain  them  protection,  why,  then,  they  would 
make  money  under  all  circumstancesi  It  is  only  remarkable 
that  they  were  not  as  degraded  as  the  world  thought  them, 
that  they  were  not  bereft  of  every  spark  of  humanity  !  Man 
can  be  deprived  of  much  more  than  his  material  wealth.  His 
ambition,  his  hope,  his  honor,  his  mental  ease,  can  be  taken 
from  him—  compared  with  such  torment,  the  bed  of  Pro- 
crustes were  down  and  feathers.  And  so  under  these  trials 
the  very  physical  likeness  of  the  Jew  became  changed.  His 
keen  mind  lay  dormant,  he  bent  his  head  and  could  look 
none  in  the  face.  It  is  but  right  to  emphasize  llie  fact  that 
these  legal  outrages  were  due  to  that  parody  of  jurisprudence 
that  looked  upon  the  Jew  as  a  stranger,  such  legislation 
having  been  born  of  the  wedlock  of  Church  and  State. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  a  brighter  page  of  Jewish  history  and 
show  that  as  the  nations  (would  that  we  could  say  all  nations) 


1 2  E  VOL  UTION  OF  JE  WISH  DISABILITY 

granted  rights  to  Israel,  his  vitality,  and  his  recuperative 
and  rejuvenative  power — legacy  of  his  vicissitudes — mani- 
fested itself;  he  shook  ofif  his  dejected  appearance  and  looked 
the  world  in  the  face,  repaying  in  kind  the  confidence  reposed 
in  him,  and  taking  his  place  in  honorable  citizenship  with 
the  most  respected  in  the  land. 

The  Marannos  of  Spain  and  Portugal  received  a  hearty 
welcome  from  the  inhabitants  of  Holland,  to  which  country 
they  went  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Immediately 
upon  their  arrival,  they  declared  their  faith  and  were  allowed 
to  build  synagogues  and  schools,  Jiarly  in  the  eighteenth 
century  they  were  granted  numerous  rights  and  privileges, 
which  resulted  in  commercial  prosperity  for  the  country,  and 
a  return  to  intellectual  culture  for  themselves,  and  conse- 
quently for  thoFe  with  whom  they  came  in  contact. 

From  Amsterdam  went  forth  the  first  movement  towards 
the  return  of  the  Jews  to  England,  whence  they  had  been 
expelled  in  1290.  Manasseh  ben  Israel's  petition  to  Oliver 
Cromwell  is  English  history,  and  our  co-religionists  in 
Britain  have  recently  instituted  "  Re-settlement  Day  "  as  a 
local  Jewish  anniversary.  But  while  Holland  and  Erigland 
were  progressing,  there  was,  as  yet,  only  a  glimmering  light 
in  Northern  and  Central  Europe,  which  now  and  again — such 
as  at  the  invention  of  printing  or  at  the  rise  of  some  great 
Jewish  scholar — would  break  into  a  lurid  flame. 

In  Germany  and  Austria  they  were  regarded  as  aliens 
and  were  oppressed  in  consequence.  The  thumbscrew  and 
the  rack  gave  place  to  taxation,  with  now  and  then  an  expul- 
sion. In  some  cities  Jews  could  not  leave  their  ghetto  at 
night,  and  a  special  permit  was  required  to  receive  a  guest. 
Money  and  property  were  confiscated  at  the  slightest  pretext, 
and  when  in  1745  Maria  Theresa  expelled  20,000  Jews  from 
Austria,  the  tide  of  persecution  seemed,  for  a  time,  to  be  at 
the  flood.  It  was,  however,  the  fulness  of  the  breaking 
wave.  But  a  few  years  more,  the  ebb  and  flow  cast  up  a 
Mendelssohn  to  right  some  of  the  wrongs  of  his  co-religion- 
ists. This  later  persecution  in  Germany  blasted  the  lives  of 
the  Jews  to  such  an   extent   that  they  isolated  themselves. 


EVOL  UTION  OF  JE  WISH  DI SAB  J  LI  TY  13 

refused  to  learn  the  lang^uage  and  literature,  spoke  a  jargon, 
and  hated  their  oppressors  with  a  holy  hatred.  Small  wonder 
then  that  the  outside  world  had  tolearn  afresh  the  nature  and 
calling  of  the  Israelite — his  law,  his  characteristics,  his  life. 

Subsequently,  at  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
when  the  Code  Napoleon,  introduced  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Westphalia  as  well  as  into  all  French  provinces,  took  the 
place  of  the  old  German  statute — according  to  which  Jews 
were  strangers  and  outcasts,  liable  to  imprisonment  without 
a  trial — the  full  citizenship  accorded  to  the  Jews  in  France  at 
the  Revolution  was  accorded  to  our  German  co-religionists. 
The  LeibzoU  or  body  tax  was  abolished,  and  all  positions  in 
the  State,  except  those  directly  under  the  government,  were 
open  to  Israelites.  This  freedom,  however,  did  not  last  long. 
Following  the  downfall  of  Napoleon,  the  treaty  of  Vienna 
(1815)  put  the  same  legal  restrictions  in  practice  that  had 
obtained  before  the  French  supremacy.  The  Judengasse 
was  established  at  Frankfort,  all  offices  of  the  State  were 
closed  to  them,  the  number  of  Jewish  marriages  was  limited, 
and  Christian  names  were  forbidden  them.  They  were,  how- 
ever, again  admitted  as  citizens  at  the  Revolution  of  1848, 
and  in  1850  Frederick  William  IV.  of  Prussia  gave  them  full 
rights.  Since  the  war  of  1870  there  has  been  nothing  upon 
the  statute  code  of  the  German  Empire  militating  against 
Israelites. 

In  France,  in  the  year  1781,  owing  to  the  friendship  for 
Israelites  of  several  noted  men,  an  agitation  for  Jewish  free- 
dom was  begun,  which  ended  on  September  27th,  1791,  by 
their  full  emancipation.  The  phrase  ''Liberty,  Equality  and 
Fraternity"  could  not  be  quoted  for  the  new  French  nation, 
unless  all  the  inhabitants  shared  therein.  To  the  eternal 
honor  of  France,  be  it  said,  she  was  the  first  modern  nation 
to  give  full  rights  and  privileges  to  Israelites.  This  stand 
was  more  than  confirmed  b>  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  since 
whose  time  the  status  of  the  French  Jews  might  well  serve 
as  a  model  to  other  countries. 

In  Italy,  from  the  later  Middle  Ages  till  1848,  the  Jews 
•were  restricted,  except  during  the  few  years  Napoleon  held 


14  EVOLUTION  OF  JEWISH  DISABILITY 

sway.  The  ghetto  was  established  in  all  cities,  and  Israel 
had  to  move  with  caution.  In  1848,  their  position  began  to 
improve,  and  the  last  restriction  was  erased  in  1670,  since 
which  time  they  have  been  accorded  full  liberty. 

Portugal  in  182 1,  and  Spain  in  1868,  opened  their  gates 
to  Israelites,  and  have  formally  invited  them  to  return  and 
become  citizens. 

In  the  Austrian  Empire,  where  the  LeibzoU  was  abol- 
ished in  1783,  their  legal  disabilities  were  slowly  removed, 
and  to-day  there  is  nothing  upon  the  statute-book  against 
our  co-religionists. 

In  Holland,  where  from  the  Middle  Ages  they  had  been 
practically  free,  they  were  made  legally  so  from  -the  year 

^793- 

Belgium  in   1830,   Sweden  in  1848,  Denmark  in  1849, 

Greece  in  the  same  year,  and  Switzerland  in  1874,  enfran- 
chised their  Jewish  residents,  which  Norway  has  yet  to  do. 
The  Balkan  provinces,  with  the  exception  of  Roumania, 
have,  since  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  in  1878,  given  the  Jews  full 
rights  as  citizens,  and  the  general  progress  made  by  our 
brethren  in  faith  has  been  remarkable  in  consequence. 
Roumania  is  almost  as  barbaric  to-day  as  she  was  a  century 
ago,  and  her  citizens  are  correspondingly  retrogressive. 
Nearly  every  right  is  denied  them,  and  they  are  scarcely 
sure  of  their  own  lives.  The  statute-books  teem  with  Jewish 
restrictions,  and  their  emancipation  seems  far  ofif. 

The  history  of  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews  in  England 
is  most  interesting,  because  of  the  unremitting  struggle  of 
her  great  men  for  liberty  of  conscience,  against  enormous 
odds.  From  the  year  1656,  the  re-settlement  of  the  Jews  in 
England  began.  In  1673,  their  right  of  public  worship  was 
threatened,  and  later  on  they  were  heavily  taxed.  The 
phrase,  "On  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian,"  was  omitted  from 
the  judicial  oath  in  1723  where  Jews  were  concerned,  and  in 
1740,  foreign  Israelites  who  had  served  in  the  British  navy 
for  two  vears  obtained  certain  rights  of  naturalization.  This 
encouraged  Anglo-Israel  to  patriotism,  and  many  fought  for 
the  government,  while  others  helped  it  financially.    England 


EVOLUTION  OF  JEWISH  DISABILITY  15 

did  not  respond  as  heartily  as  she  should,  for  it  was  not  till 
three-quarters  of  a  century  thereafter  that  the  next  emanci- 
patory act — marriage  solemnization  according  to  the  Jewish 
law,  hitherto  prohibited  —  was  passed.  From  that  time 
prejudice  against  Israel  commenced  to  die,  although  its 
death  was  slow. 

Early  in  the  third  decade  of  this  century,  extraordinary 
eflforts  were  made  by  our  co-religionists  in  England  to  become 
entirely  emancipated,  and  gradually  the  better  sense  of  the 
English  people  prevailed.  Although,  in  1847,  Baron  Lionel 
de  Rothschild  was  elected  a  member  of  Parliament,  he  was 
not  allowed  to  take  his  seat  till  1858,  the  Christian  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  government  acting  as  a  deterrent.  In  1866, 
the  abolition  of  all  verbal  strictures  was  accomplished,  since 
which  Jews  have  held  the  highest  honors  in  England,  and. 
there  is  nothing  whatever  on  the  statute-books  that  smacks 
of  discrimination. 

In  Turkey,  the  Jews  have  been  gradually  emancipated, 
the  last  two  Sultans  having  been  particularly  favorable 
towards  them.  It  is  only  true  to  add  that  useful  citizenship 
has  been  the  result. 

In  Morocco  and  Persia,  the  Israelites  are  in  thraldom, 
with  everything  in  the  judicial  code  against  them.  Living 
in  certain  quarters  of  the  town,  shut  in  on  all  sides,  their  lot 
is  terrible.  Beaten  and  spat  upon  in  the  streets,  at  the  mercy 
of  every  passer-by,  a  bitter  cry  for  redemption  is  raised  to  the 
powers  that  be.  Such  persecution  has  made  the  Jews 
benighted  and  ignorant,  and  the  law  is  still  pressing  upon 
them  with  a  heavy  hand. 

I  have  purposely  refrained  from  touching  upou  Russia, 
or  its  Jewish  disability  is  a  matter  of  current  history.  The 
May  Laws  of  1881,  introduced  by  Ignatief,  are  still  in  force  ; 
and  while  the  Jewish  status  was  bad  enough  before  that  time, 
it  is  worse  now.  The  "pale  of  settlement"  is  too  small  to 
allow  the  millions  of  Israelites  to  live  therein  as  human 
beings  should  live,  and  unless  the  law  of  local  settlement  is 
repealed,  emigration  or  deterioration  is  left  tbem.  Their 
mental  life  is  made    the    mark    for  cruel   shafts,  as  only    a 


i6  EVOLUTION  OF  JEWISH  DISABILITY 

small  percentage  can  enter  the  schools,  and  everything  that 
can  make  existence  miserable  is  legally  advanced.  It  would 
be  a  miracle  if  the  Russian  Jew  was  all  we  could  wish  him 
to  be.  If  there  is  anything  questionable  in  his  nature,  it  is 
born  of  the  degradation  forced  upon  him. 

In  South  America,  until  comparatively  recent  times, 
there  were  the  same  restrictions  placed  upon  Jews  as  in 
Southern  Europe,  and  even  to-day  there  are  numerous  laws 
against  the  full  emancipation  of  our  co-religionists  of  the 
Spanish  Main. 

In  North  America,  whither  some  Jews  had  emigrated 
from  Brazil  in  the  seventeenth  century,  Peter  Stuyvesant 
put  obstacles  in  the  way  of  Jewish  settlement.  Rhode  Island, 
colonized  by  Roger  Williams,  decreed  in  its  charter  of  1644 
that  every  man  may  follow  the  dictates  of  his  conscience, 
and  to  Roger  Williams  we  are  indebted  for  his  excellent 
advocacy  of  the  total  separation  of  Church  and  State  and  his 
masterful  ideas  of  the  removal  of  civil  disabilities  In  Mary, 
land,  in  1761,  the  judiciary  refused  to  give  naturalization 
papers  to  two  co-religionists,  basing  their  refusal  upon  a 
certain  "Toleration  Act"  passed  in  1649,  and  it  was  not  till 
1826  that  full  rights  were  accorded  the  Jews  in  that  State. 

From  that  time  there  has  been  nothing  upon  the  statute- 
books  of  the  different  States  curtailing  our  rights  and  privi- 
leges as  citizens,  we  being  in  every  respect  "  free  and  equal.'* 
That  our  useful  life  as  part  and  parcel  of  this  Republic  is 
well  recognized,  contemporary  events  show. 

From  this  brief  history  of  "The  Evolution  of  Jewish  Dis 
ability,"  we  may  deduce  that  the  Israelite  can  hardly  rise 
above  the  moral  level  of  the  laws  that  curtail  his  liberty; 
that,  whenever  such  laws  have  been  passed,  there  has  been 
a  tendency  to  retrograde,  and  that,  whenever  and  wherever 
just  laws  have  been  passed,  the  Jew  is  the  peer  of  his  fellow" 
citizen  in  every  respect.  The  Jewish  characteristic  of  adapt- 
ability to  environment  is  well  known.  Place  the  Israelite 
wherever  you  will,  and  he  will  assimilate  quicker  than  any 
other  man.  There  is  this  diSerence, 'however,  marked  all 
through  his  history.     While  a  non-Jew  will  quickly  fall  to  a 


E  VOL  UTION  OF  JE  WISH  DISABILITY  1 7 

degrading  level  and  but  slowly  rise  to  an  elevated  position, 
the  Israelite,  tempered  by  the  persecutions  of  two  thousand 
years — treatment  that  has  called  into  play  all  the  religious 
consciousness  that  he  ever  possessed — falls  slowly,  but  rises 
and  progresses  very  quickly.  Where  freedom  has  been  given 
him,  he  is  almost  immediately  at  his  best.  Consider  him  an 
alien,  and  his  ardor  is  dampened.  That  his  chequered  past 
has  made  him  so  assimilative  we  cannot  for  a  moment  doubt. 
Having  had  to  accommodate  himself  to  every  conceivable 
situation,  his  character  speedily  reflects  the  treatment  he 
receives. 

Of  the  eflfect  of  continued  oppressive  measures  working 
to  the  physical  and  social  detriment  of  our  co-religionists, 
let  me  adduce  but  one  instance — the  apathy  of  our  people 
towards  agricultural  pursuits.  None  will  deny  that  in  our 
early  history  we  were  tillers  of  the  soil.  The  Jewish  life  was 
an  agricultural  life  for  over  two  thousand  years.  In  mediae- 
val times,  in  nearly  every  country  we  were  forbidden  to  hold 
land,  even  upon  a  tenure,  with  the  result  that  our  natural 
affection  for  Mother  Earth  died  out;  and  only  during  the  last 
two  decades — thanks  to  our  philanthropists — have  agricul- 
tural colonies  begun  to  flourish.  Our  disinclination  for 
agriculture  has  always  been  affirmed  against  us  as  a  vice.  If 
it  be  such,  it  is  proper  to  answer  this  accusation  by  citing  the 
words  of  a  noted  French  statesman,  who,  in  defending  the 
Israelites  in  public  assembly,  said:  ''  Tiie  vices  of  the  Jews 
are  the  result  of  the  degradation  to  which  we  have  subjected 
them.  Better  their  condition  and  they  will  quickly  improve 
themselves." 

And  in  this  connection  let  me  quote  Leroy-Beaulieu: 
"The  Jew's  past  is  responsible  for  his  good  and  his  evil 
qualities,  for  his  strength  and  for  his  weakness,  for  all  the 
peculiarities  of  his  physical  and  moral  being.  And  here  is 
the  distinction  to  be  made— whatever  is  good  in  the  Jew 
physically,  and  perhaps  morally,  is  due  to  himself,  whatever 
is  bad|in  him  is  due  to  us  (Christianity);  the  former  is  of  his 
own  making,  the  latter  is  our  work." 

The  term  alien,  by  which  our  people  were  invariably 


1 8  E  VOL  UTION  OF  JE  WISH  DISA  BILITY 

known,  brought  scorn  in  its  wake,  as  the  legislation  accorded 
to  the  stranger,  depriving  him  of  fair  means  to  existence, 
succeeded  in  forcing  him  to  adopt  unfair  methods.  This  is 
our  outcry,  and  it  should  be  the  plaint  in  every  country 
where,  by  the  partial  or  total  combination  of  Church  and 
State,  perfect  freedom  of  conscience  is  threatened.  Psycho- 
logists are  unanimous  in  the  opinion,  based  upon  historic 
facts,  that  in  order  to  regain  his  complete  manhood,  the  Jew 
requires  no  other  help  than  Liberty. 

Now,  notwithstanding  the  first  Article  in  the  Amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  "Congress 
shall  make  no  law  respecting  the  establishment  of  religion, 
or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof,"  a  committee  repre- 
senting certain  Christian  sects  petitioned  the  Judiciary 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives  to  insert  Christ 
in  the  Constitution. 

The  reply  of  the  Senatorial  committee  to  whom  this  bill 
was  referred  was  all  that  could  be  expected  from  wise  men 
and  patriots.  The  substance  of  the  answer  lies  in  these 
notable  words: 

"Among  all  the  religious  persecutions  with  which  almost 
every  age  of  modern  history  is  stained,  no  victim  ever  suffered 
but  for  the  violation  of  what  government  denominated  the  law 
of  God.  To  prevent  a  similar  reign  of  evils  in  this  country, 
the  Constitution  has  wisely  withheld  from  our  Government 
the  power  of  defining  the  divine  law.  It  is  a  right  reserved 
to  each  citizen,  and  while  he  respects  the  rights  of  others, 
he  cannot  be  held  amenable  to  any  tribunal  for  his  conclu- 
sions." 

The  wisdom  of  this  response  is  unquestioned.  Make  us 
aliens  by  inserting  anything  in  the  Constitution  to  which 
we  cannot  bend  our  conscience,and  we  run  the  risk  of  living, 
in  this  country,  as  we  have  lived  in  other  countries,  on 
sufferance  only.  Instead  of  the  thousands  of  emigrants 
learning  with  avidity,  albeit  in  the  Hebrew  language,  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  we  would  have  the  harrowing  spectacle  of  a 
large  class  of  intelligent  people — native  born   and   foreign — 


E  VOL  UTI  ON  OF  JE  WISH  Dl  SAB  I  LI  TY  19 

constantly  upon  the  alert  for  legal  discrimination.  And 
while  we  can  almost  positively  assert  that  this  contingency 
will  never  arise,  it  is  well  to  call  the  attention  of  those  zeal- 
ous agitators  for  a  Christian  Constitution  to  the  fact  that  they 
are  asking  for  something,  the  import  of  which  is  detrimental 
to  an  intellectual  and  law-abiding  section  of  the  Republic, 
and  indirectly  fostering  inquisitorial  methods  and  the  series 
of  social  and  political  persecutions  that  during  the  Middle 
Ages  gave  birth  to  a  Torquemada.  It  would  be  a  wise  and 
patriotic  act  did  the  opposition  to  this  proposed  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  come  from  the  Christian  clergy  of  all 
denominations,  for  it  is  in  their  power  to  aid  the  cause  of 
Liberty  by  setting  before  their  congregants  the  result  of  this 
contemplated  violation  of  perfect  freedom,  a  disaster  that 
would  speedily  react  upon  the  whole  American  nation. 

It  should  be  our  aim  to  imbue  our  Christian  fellow- 
citizens  at  large  with  the  importance  of  protecting  that 
liberty  which  has  ever  been  the  mainstay  of  these  United 
States,  so  that  the  Stars  and  Stripes  may  never  be  sullied  by 
that  legislation  that  erstwhile  darkened  mediaeval  Europe. 
The  principles  for  which  the  founders  of  this  country,  free 
and  independent,  fought  and  died,  must  ever  be  upheld,  and 
it  behooves  us  individually  as  Jews,  and  collectively  as  B'ne 
B'rith,  to  record  our  dissatisfaction  with  everything  that 
savors  of  an  alliance  between  Church  and  State,  and  we  will 
thereby  prove  ourselves  loyal  Americans,  loyal  Israelites  and 
loyal  "  Sous  of  the  Covenant." 


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